Coven X
by caramel729cucumber
Summary: Alice has a mysterious vision of a silent girl. Edward hears thoughts that seem to come from nobody. And in the ivory towers of the Volturi, Jane's world starts to collapse around her as events that none of them could have foreseen unfold...
1. Prologue: Unintended

**Coven X – Prologue: Unintended **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Saga. **

**I hope you enjoying reading this fanfic: please review! **

She shut her eyes, and took a deep breath. There were so many scents in the air… she was so new to this life. Everything was shining, surprising, reflective. Everything was right here. It was as though this was the beginning of everything... ever. The first day. The first ever.

And it was perfect.

_Are you ready?_

She heard his words echo inside her head and smiled as she replied.

_Always._

_Then let's go._


	2. Chapter 1: Falling Down

**Coven X – Chapter 1: Falling Down  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Reviews appreciated: it's my very first fanfic! **

"Ow!"

"What – ?"

"Shut up. I'm trying to read."

"You're always trying to read."

"There's nothing else to do around here except talk to you lot."

"I'd rather read than talk to you any day, _Tanya_."

"Oooh…"

Peace reigned again in the house of the Denalis. For the twenty seconds before Kate yelped again.

"What is it _now_?" asked Carmen for the second time, a hint of exasperation colouring her tone.

"It feels like I'm… shocking my_self_," groaned Kate.

Tanya rolled her eyes. Carmen ostentatiously replaced her earphones and re-started her music. Eleazar pushed his fringe back from his face thoughtfully, then moved so fast that he seemed to blur as he made his way across to the shiny black laptop lying on the table by the window. And Garrett, in his usual laid-back fashion, simply grinned.

A couple of minutes later, Kate screamed out loud – very loud.

"Jesus!" yelled Tanya. "Some of us are trying to read here! Honestly, some people are…" the rest of her words were lost in an incoherent mumble as she bent back over her book, her pointed nose nearly touching the pages.

Eleazar was reading the news online, frowning as his sharp dark eyes scanned the page.

Carmen hadn't even heard.

Garrett was the only one who noticed that Kate wasn't even breathing.


	3. Chapter 2: Agitated

**Coven X – Chapter 2: Agitated**

**Disclaimer: as you will probably have guessed from the previous two disclaimers, I do not own Twilight. **

**Please review: it's my first ever fanfic! **

**This chapter is dedicated to my very first reviewer, ginyginger. Thanks! **

Edward frowned. He felt a little… odd. In fact, he felt very odd. In fact, he would go so far as to say that he felt extremely out of sorts, and not entirely altogether there.

"Bella?" he asked of the empty room.

She was by his side in a second. "Nessie's asleep… what's up?"

Edward shook his head, bronze hair falling into his eyes. "I don't know. Are you shielding your thoughts right now?"

"Yeah… I mean, I wasn't really thinking about it…" Bella said. "Why? What's the matter?" She frowned slightly, pausing. "You seem kind of worried about something," she stated softly.

"It's okay," Edward reassured her, but there was a false note in his voice that Bella picked up on immediately. She look him in the eye, raising one eyebrow.

"I don't believe that."

Edward capitulated. "It's just that there's this feeling in my head, like… a swarm of bees or something."

"Thoughts?" Bella asked.

"Yes," he murmured, "but different."

Bella held up a cautioning finger. "Wait," she said. "There's someone coming." Edward closed the book that he had been unsuccessfully trying to concentrate on, folding over the corner of his page.

They waited, hand in hand, as the light steps – as fast as the beat of a hummingbird's wings – got gradually louder.

"Hi, guys," announced Alice. Her spiky hair was damp, her eyes glistening bright with excitement. She narrowed her eyes at Edward, who was looking bored.

"What is it?" asked Bella warily.

"I just saw something…" Alice paused. "Something is coming. Something big… someone, in fact."

"Get on with it!" Bella flicked her hand behind her in a nearly invisible movement. A square, black, object was flying through the air for a half-second, before Alice caught it in one delicate hand and threw it over her shoulder.

"Alice," complained Edward, "that was my book."

"She threw it," said Alice, unrepentant. Edward glared at her. "Anyway, you two need to shut up for one second."

Bella sighed, clapping a hand over Edward's mouth a millisecond before he started to speak. "Fire away," she said.

"Thank you." Alice grinned; not in her usual evil manner, just a sort of a sad smile. "Anyway, listen… there's a very faint sort of a noise in my mind. Not a picture. Just a sort of a humming sound, but nothing to see. Not even darkness. Just nothing."

"Mmf! Mmf!" said Edward through Bella's hand.

Alice shut her eyes for a second and then looked up again. "I feel blind."

"Isn't it just the wolves?" asked Bella, releasing Edward, who heroically resisted the urge to theatrically gasp for air and fixed his eyes on his favourite sister.

"No," said Alice. "This time, it's different."

Edward fixed her with a golden stare. "Alice," he said softly, "I think I know what's going on."

"Edward?"

At that moment, three things happened: Edward gasped, Bella convulsively grabbed at the air, and Alice cried out loud, her eyes seeing something far away.

"No!"


	4. Chapter 3: Falling Away With You

**Coven X – Chapter 3: Falling Away With You**

**Got to say it, I'm bored of all those disclaimers. In case you hadn't noticed: I DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT. Okay? So stop asking me if I can give you Stephenie Meyer's number, cause I can't.  
**

**Sorry. I'm kind of happy. Nearly Christmas, yay! **

**Anyway, I've got 18 hits so far, but NOT ONE SINGLE REVIEW. Come on… even if you want to say my grammar's good (damned right) or you like my profile pic (thank you. I like it too) then can you please, please, please, review this. I actually do care, you know. Please, please, please, please, please?**

**Right. Long author note, hey? Here goes. **

_**Volterra, Italy, early evening**_

"Alec?" called Jane as she made her way through the vaulted passageway that led down to her chamber. "Alec? Where are you?"

His scent ought to have been all over the place, but all that she could sense was that he had left his room, next to hers, in the early hours of the morning, and not returned since. Which was strange, because they had been dismissed from the court at about the time that this trail was from. So he had gone to his room, left – and stayed out for at least fourteen hours.

As she reached the steps, Jane heard an unmistakeable sound: laughter. But not just any laughter – that was Alec, she was sure of it, and – could it be? Surely not – a human.

_What the hell?_

But the scent reached Jane now, and it was human, and it was all she could do hold her breath and run like fury in the opposite direction.

_**Later that day, after sunset…**_

"Jane?" yelled Alec. "Jane!"

She heard, but she didn't want to answer. _Gallivanting about the place with a human… talk about unsuitable company to keep! Aren't we meant to keep the secret and obey the law? _

"JANE! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME! COME HERE!"

_The whole damn city can hear you, moron. _

"Please…"

His voice faded away, and Jane knew that he had gone. That was unusual for Alec; he didn't say much, he kept his thoughts to himself, but he would search until he found what he wanted.

_Why are you doing this to me?_

Finally, silence, as the sound of Alec's delicate footsteps grew quieter. Jane lay there, in the darkness under her bed, on the hard stone floor, with only her thoughts for company. Until –

"Ha!" cried a triumphant voice by her shoulder. "Found you!"

Jane growled, digging her slender fingers into the floor to control her anger. It didn't work – she ended up with handfuls of gravel and a strong urge to knock Alec through the opposite wall.

"You – you –" she struggled to find words through the haze of fury – "you –" She pushed herself up, out from under the bed, shoving Alec backwards roughly. He rolled across the floor and leapt lightly to his feet, grinning. To anyone but Jane that perfect smile would have been disarming, distracting – but Jane was not anyone.

"Hey," Alec said, smiling. "Why were you hiding, anyway?"

"Hey," mimicked Jane. "What the hell were you doing with a _human, here, in the tower of the __**Volturi**__, you complete blockhead,_ anyway?"

The smile slid off Alec's face like treacle off a spoon.

"Oh," he said quietly. "I guessed you might want to know about that…"

"You guessed? You think I might care?" She clenched her fists tightly. Her blond hair, plaited intricately as usual, was a contrast to the expression of vehement wrath on her face that reminded Alec so powerfully of being a human around raw onions that he almost blinked to clear the tears away.

"I met her in the market. She was selling olives… she's so… you have to meet her, you'll love her then..." Alec's black eyes glowed as he murmured almost reverently. "She's like nothing on earth…"

"How could you?" Jane shrieked.

"I love her," sighed Alec happily. It almost made Jane scream to see him so happy, so serene and peaceful.

_Why can you be so happy, when I am not? How is that fair?_

_Damn it, Jane, you're losing it. You're falling apart. _

_That's right, Alec. Some twin connection we still have. You've got your little human girlfriend... and I've got nothing.  
_  
Jane recoiled back out of her mind. Why was it that only when she was most angry with Alec - which was actually hardly ever - why was it that only then could she connect with him? Their stupid "twin connection" was only ever present when she just wanted to be alone... to be apart from him.

"Doesn't she even have a name?" she snapped.

"She's called Caprice."

"Caprice…" Jane closed her eyes. "Ruled by whim. Impulsive. Hot-headed."

Alec bowed his head and gazed at the floor as Jane drifted past him. At the doorway she turned to face him again. Her face was blank, no expression on the lovely features. Her black eyes looked dead.

"That's not you, Alec. That's not you."

Then she turned around and ran through the towers of the Volturi, as fast as she had ever run before, her mind blank except for a terrible pain that somehow brought a thousand screams of strangers to her mind.

**Thanks for getting this far… please review it now! I try so hard, and it's really tough to do all this emotional writing and then get absolutely zero reviews. Anyone who reviews and can tell me which band the titles of these chapters come from wins a special prize... which shall be revealed in my own sweet time. **

**Caprice is actually a geniune Italian name, and it does mean "ruled by whim, impulsive, hot-headed".  
**


	5. Chapter 4: Starlight

**Coven X – Chapter 4: Starlight  
**

**AN: Please review! This chapter is more... interesting (I hope!)... but I think Kate and Garrett are SUCH a cute couple, so I had to have a Kate/Garrett scene in there somewhere!  
**

_So this is what it's like to be one of them…_ Kate reflected. _Weak… humiliated… exposed… exhausted… I've just got a taste of my own medicine… I think a hundred percent might be too much…_ _Not for the Volturi, it's not. Nothing is bad enough for them… _and then the thought that always came, attacking the back of her mind, bringing her down every time she laughed, smashing her hopes and dreams like Thor's hammer, tunnelling into her thoughts and cracking them up from the inside:

_They killed my sister._

Through this strange, pain-filled delirium that felt to her as though it lasted for hours and seemed to everyone else like exactly three point seven four six three seconds, Kate heard a near-silent whisper.

"Katie? Are you okay there?"

It was Garrett, not smiling for once, his golden eyes open wide.

"Yeah," muttered Kate. "I'm fine. I just feel…"

"Weird," Garrett finished her sentence. "I know exactly what you mean."

"Do you want to go for a walk or something?" Kate asked.

Garrett nodded silently, and they got up. Eleazar followed their passing with his narrow, dark, eyes, but did not speak. They left the wide, wood-panelled room, with its huge windows and subtly concealed sound system, and walked straight down the hallway without stopping. As they opened the front door and stepped out into the crisply iced air, Kate breathed in deeply, shaking her head slightly.

They made their way across the frosted grass, each step crunching beneath their bare feet. A human would be hopping up and down with the strange, burning cold that frost brings on its silent breath, but the two vampires were as comfortable as they would have been floating on a pool of cool water.

Kate and Garrett ran for a few minutes until they reached a little meadow. They lay down on their backs, hands entwined, gazing up at the night sky. It was full of stars. It seemed as though the universe was collapsing in on them, falling slowly downwards, and enveloping them forever.

There was silence for a long time, the only sound the silent singing of the stars. Then Kate spoke once more.

"Garrett?"

"Mm?"

"I think something's gone wrong." A note of urgency had crept into her voice.

Garrett sat up so fast that his outline blurred; he sensed it too. "What do you mean?"

"At -" a wrenching pain seemed to tear Kate apart as she spoke. It was an effort to continue, and she needlessly gasped in air as she leaped to her feet - "home - Tanya - hurry -"

They wheeled around, sprinting back to the house. As they reached it they saw that the lights were on, the front door open, and the sound of stress creeping out with the light that spilled down the steps. There was a faint murmuring, the sound of someone pushing buttons and a mumble of speech, and then Carmen's voice, very slow and clear, yet tinged with complete hysteria.

"Edward, she won't listen... yes... I think so. Thank you. Tomorrow."

Garret and Kate burst through the door. Carmen looked at them, her eyes so wide that her pupils could have been black holes.

"Tanya's gone mad," Carmen said, and a thrill of terror ran through Kate's entire being.


	6. Chapter 5: In Your World

**Coven X – Chapter 5: In Your World  
**

**AN: I like reviews. They nice to eat.  
**

**This chapter is dedicated to Funny-Replay, for the encouragement and ridiculousness. And the winner of the chapter titles competition (and its sole entrant, although I suspect, Purple13512, if you had really applied yourself you would have got it in a second) is... *drum roll* Tuskface! Yay for Tusky, who will receive her prize once I've thought of one.  
**

**Happy Christmas everyone! **

_**Forks, Washington**_

It is a little-known fact that seeing two worlds at once successfully requires only one eye, but two minds. Seeing more than two worlds at once is generally considered impossible.

Alice was in fact unaware of this fact, which might explain why she was having so much trouble – what with her two eyes and single mind – focusing on both of the baffling scenes unfolding before her eyes.

From what she could decipher of "reality" – in the loosest sense of that term – Bella was very still, Edward was very still, and indeed everything appeared to be very still.

But in the other reality – for she knew that it was real – there was movement. A girl. Gentle black waves of hair, olive skin, dark eyes. Shy eyes… shy eyes and a name that fitted her like a glove fits a bicycle. She was laughing as she ran through a vaulted, stone corridor (a corridor familiar to Alice in a strange way that her mind seemed to be shying away from. Huh. Strange.), a laugh that was almost embarrassingly loud. It matched her name better than her eyes.

Alice had read somewhere, in a New Scientist magazine, she thought, that a person's eyes and laughter are the best indicators of their character. _Perhaps a conflict between the two shows a conflict in the mind..._ wondered Alice_. Huh. Dream on. It's never as simple as that._

The two universes collided, drifting over and through one another, jolting sickeningly as the girl with the shy eyes dissolved through a fog of dizziness.

_Interesting,_ thought Alice. Then, as her sight stopped spinning, she noticed that her brother and sister in law were both staring at her, eyes wide with confusion. Bella was looking worried, and Edward was looking pained. _Damn. I think I said that out loud._ Alice made a point of never telling anyone – _anyone_ – her thoughts. Of course, Edward heard a few, the ones on the surface, but Alice's mind was more complex than a fractal beehive made out of four strands of genetically modified DNA, and the constructs of protection that she had built around it were the tortoise-shell shield formations around it to the lightly-armed cavalry of her mind.

_Damn it, Edward, is it my fault that I don't like you messing around in my head?_ thought Alice crossly. The cavalry clinked their armour threateningly, the horses stamping their front hooves in the dust.

Edward looked ashamed and turned his eyes away from his favourite sister.

Bella blinked. "What happened just then?" she asked, her voice the whisper of an icicle in the wind.

Edward frowned, his eyes dark with worry. "I felt... a shock?"

"Right..." murmured Bella. "I just sort of blanked."

Alice sighed. _Why are you all so dopey?_ she asked them silently, beneath the humdrum buzz of nothing that she used to keep Edward out. "Okay then," she said out loud. "Edward said he knew what's going on before, but it's fairly obvious that he doesn't any more, so unless he can prove me wrong..." She looked at him pointedly. Bella frowned, a tiny crease appearing between her eyebrows.

"Oh. Yeah. Right." Edward shook his head. His hair fell into his eyes again, and he brushed it away absentmindedly. He opened his mouth to speak, as his mobile phone rang. He sighed and answered it.

"Hello? What? Tanya?" The composure on Edward's face slid off like butter from a piece of toast being held upside-down by an absent-minded child. "What? I don't understand... no... no... three hours. Okay." He snapped the phone shut.

"What's the matter?" asked Bella in the same instant. The tension in her voice was obvious; not tension like that of a piece of elastic, more tension like that of a thread that is being stretched nearly to breaking point, which it is due to reach in three seconds, at which time it will snap, irreparably and for ever.

_One..._

"We need to be in Denali in three hours. They can't hold her for any longer than that."

"Why not?" The hush of the grave was in Bella's voice.

_Two..._

"Because Tanya will kill herself." Alice herself was as surprised as anyone to hear herself say the words.

_And... three._

**Thanks for reading!  
**


	7. Chapter 6: Maybe

**Coven X – Chapter 6: Maybe **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. **

**AN: Okay, so here's the lowdown: this chapter is a bit lighter, a bit heavier, a bit fluffier, and a hell of a lot more angsty. There's a new musical guessing game for the titles. The plot bunny has gone off in a huff, so this is a fill-in until it comes back. And I apologise for any mistakes in the Italian; I used Google Translator, because my Italian is **_**not very good**_**. Also, this chapter is a premonition of some of the random bits of science that may come later in the story...  
**

**Please, please, please review!**

_Volterra, Italy, 7:47 am_

It was Wednesday: market day. The explanation for this choice of day was simple – _nessuno lavora di Domenica, e scavano e pesce e scegliere il lunedì, Martedì e viene utilizzato per il trasporto interno alla città, in modo da Mercoledì è giorno di mercato. __Come ho detto, è abbastanza semplice, davvero_.

In other words: no one worked on Sundays, and on Mondays they dug and fished and picked, and Tuesday was used for transportation, so Wednesday was market day. Like I said, it's simple, really.

The girl running the olive stall certainly knew this. She was a perfectly ordinary fifteen-year-old girl: her father was a businessman, who approved of her summer job ("It will teach you the value of money," he had announced grandly when she told him) ; she lived in a nice house with her parents and her little sister; she was clever and did well at school; she liked painting and swimming and playing the piano – a normal girl, with a normal life, in a normal town in Italy.

And so, like any other girl, Caprice Auditore wanted to get her work over and done with and go and hang out with her friends. Well. One of her friends. And did he count as a friend? Or was he… more? Caprice knew which one she would prefer.

_Yeah, right. 'Cause he'd really choose you over any of the hundred thousand girls he could get if he wanted. _

_Well, I can dream, can't I?  
_

She was jerked from her reverie by a customer, an petite young lady wearing a headscarf who wanted two boxes of mixed olives in basil oil. As Caprice carefully filled the plastic tubs, the customer chatted cheerfully (Caprice noticed that she had a very slight English accent).

"It looks like today's going to be hot, doesn't it?"

"Oh yes," Caprice agreed.

"I expect you can't wait to finish up and go and play with your friends!" the woman laughed – the sound was disturbingly musical, like bells.

_Go and play with my friends? How old does she think I am?_

"Oh yes."

"Tell me," asked the woman, as she got out her purse (she was wearing gloves, in June. Odd.), "do you come from round here?"

"Yes." Caprice nodded. _My God, I hate talkative customers._

The woman smiled, showing a set of perfect white teeth. "Thank you," she said, and then, as she turned to go, she added a sentiment that Caprice nearly missed, so soft and gentle was her lovely voice.

"Lay one finger on my brother and you'll never see the light of day again, sweetie."

_Her brother?_

Caprice only knew one boy who could be the brother of that beautiful woman - who, now she came to think of it, looked barely older than Caprice herself - a boy equally lovely, equally perfectly-spoken... a boy who had to be protected at all costs: as he had said, from himself.

Had Alec known what his sweetheart was doing right at that moment, he might have stopped staring at his bedroom ceiling, got up off his bed, and saved them all rather a lot of trouble.

_Volterra, Italy, 8:35 am_

"Alec!"

No answer.

"ALEC!"

No answer, and now her throat was hurting.

"_ALEC!_" yelled Caprice so loudly that she had to stop running and bend over, coughing. _Oh, Madonna, not now!_ But it was now, and so with less of a sigh and more of a gasp, she pulled her inhaler out of her pocket. One puff... ten breaths... two puffs... ten more breaths... okay. She was fine.

"Are you all right?" asked a soft voice from just behind her.

She spun around, clutching at the gold cross around her neck. "Oh, my God, it's you... don't frighten me like that!" she told him, laughing.

Alec stepped forwards, taking both of her hands in his. "I told you not to come looking for me," he reprimanded her gently. "It's not safe."

She raised one eyebrow. "Not safe? Alec, this is Volterra. It's the safest town in the world!"

Alec sighed. "Yeah. But still - you see what happened here: you searched for me for how long - half an hour? an hour? **(and yes, Tuskface, that is correct grammar - and I've been reading George Eliot, so I think I know what I'm talking about here!) **- and I finally found you, at the top of the clock tower, having an asthma attack!"

"Is it my fault that I have asthma?" Caprice shot back at him angrily.

"No! Of course not!" Alec backpedaled desperately. "I'm just saying... it makes you vulnerable."

She shut her eyes. "You know you're being stupid."

"Volterra isn't as safe as it seems, you know," Alec said, and the tone of his voice was like a door being closed - gentle, not imperative or commanding, just definite and final. "There's stuff out there that let's just say you _really_ wouldn't want to meet at the top of a clock tower!" And although his words were teasing and light, Caprice knew that she had lost this argument.

"Fine," she said, trying not to sound like a sulky teenager. "What are we doing today, then?"

"I don't know... what do you want to do?"

"How about getting some ice-cream?"

Alec raised one eyebrow. "I'm not hungry myself -"

"What a surprise," muttered Caprice.

"- but we could find some for you, if you want."

"Um..." she checked her watch. "Well, it's only ten past eight. Why don't we wait till later for ice-cream - I should really get back to the market..."

"Hey, don't worry about that," Alec reassured her, grinning. "I'll get someone on it immediately."

"Who are you, San Marco?" she asked him teasingly.

"Something like that, yeah," he agreed.

_Volterra, Italy, 5:28 pm_

"And so... if you imagine the carbon monoxide molecule, and the haemoglobin, they're binding together - well, not really, it's more like the carbon monoxide is grabbing the haemoglobin and squeezing it really really tightly - and so you can't get oxygen to your brain, or any of your organs, and in a way it's a bit like having a stroke... except you die a bit more quickly." Caprice finished her explanation with an eager nod.

"I see..." murmured Alec. "And this is what they teach at schools these days?"

"What?" Caprice asked, confused. "Didn't you go to school before you moved here?"

"Uh... I was... um..." Alec cleared his throat. "Home-educated?" he said hesitantly, as though unsure if this was the right answer or not.

"Okay." Caprice frowned, and then suddenly fixed her eyes on Alec, looking less confused than challenging.

He gulped. "What have I done now?"

"Alec..." she hesitated, and then it all came out in a rush: "Why do say things like that - 'home-educated', like you don't if it's real or not? And if you've only just moved here, then how do you know so much about the town? And why do you talk like you're from a different century? Why do you never eat? And how can you have all these... people... under your command? You always say that you can get them to do stuff for you, but how? Why do they obey a kid like you?" She gasped. "Who _are_ you, Alec?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Alec said evenly, and for the first time, Caprice felt afraid of him. His eyes were black - she'd always thought that they looked like a moonless night, but no they seemed more like stones. He stood there calmly, his arms by his sides, looking perfectly sensible and rational, his expression blank - but his eyes! they were so dark! A shiver of trepidation crept up Caprice's spine, but she held her ground.

"Yes, you do," she said, trying to keep a tremor out of her voice. "You're not normal, Alec... I don't know what you are, but you're not like me! You're not!" She felt a tear sliding down her cheek, but made no move to brush it away.

Alec seemed to move his hand forward, as if to touch her, but then pulled backwards.

"I have to go," he said, and turned on his heel, and ran.

"No!" cried Caprice. "Alec! No! I'm sorry! Come back! Please!" She stretched out her arm uselessly. "Please..."

**This chapter is dedicated to my dear friend Tuskface, my most hysterical companion in the world of fanfic.**


	8. Chapter 7: Vulnerable

**Coven X – Chapter 7: Vulnerable**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Twilight. **

**AN: Hello again! Sorry about the long wait before updating with the last chapter; I had kind of a hectic holiday, and now I'm back at school, so chapters will take longer to be posted. Sorry. (Not that I expect anyone really cares about this _that_ much...)  
**

**Something really randomly cool that happened to me the other day was that I was at the orthodontist with my sister, and the radio was on. I was just reading a magazine, because I was really bored, and then I heard one of my absolute favourite MUSE SONGS ON THE RADIO!!! It was Uprising, from The Resistance (which, by the way, was voted to have the best cover art of 2009!). And also, did you know that Muse were given the Q Award for Best Act? I was SO HAPPY when I heard!  
**

**Thanks to all who favourited; please review!**

_Near Denali, Alaska, 10:24 pm  
_

They ran silently, the four of them: Jasper loping, cat-like, through the snowy forest; Alice bounding along; Edward was just in the lead, keeping pace with the others, but every muscle in his body and every nerve in his mind was urging him together to go faster, as he well could; Bella, too, although her initial newborn speed was wearing off after five months, was wishing that they could hurry up.

Carlisle and Esme had been on the island, and Edward had had no time to contact them; as Emmett and Rosalie were staying in Forks with Renesmee, they had hopefully by now been able to get to them. No one had a phone on them. Alice had not spoken since earlier that day, when Carmen had first phoned them. Jasper had not spoken at all. Although Edward and Bella had held whispered conversations earlier, no one had spoken for the past forty minutes, since the Canadian border. The tension in the air was palpable.

Finally, the trees began to thin, and in another two minutes they had left the forest, and stood at the edge of a wide, snowy, plain. Edward looked around.

"We're nearly there," he said. His voice was almost silent. The tiniest echoes that bounced off the permafrost told him that the tiny village of Denali was four hundred and seventeen miles away. There was a truck stop in one hundred and eighty-four miles, and an oil pumping station in two hundred and seven. Then, they would enter the forest where the Denali clan hunted, and that would speed them up. Tanya's family lived right at the edge of the village. "Thirty-five minutes, at the most."

"We'll be there in twenty-two," whispered Alice.

They began to run again.

_Near Cairo, Egypt, 1:27 pm_

Benjamin shook his head to one side as if trying to shake off an irksome fly. He didn't even look up.

Nothing happened.

He glanced up at the sky, which was still sunny and bright.

_Huh,_ thought Benjamin._ That's weird. _

He tried again, this time looking directly at the sun from where he sat beneath a wide tree.

Nothing happened.

Benjamin stood up, moved out of the shadow of the tree and then crouched with his palms to the ground. He raised his face to the sky, his eyes fixed on the sun, took a deep breath in, and said, "Clouds."

Nothing happened.

_This isn't happening,_ he thought. _This can't be true. I haven't lost it, I'm must just be doing something wrong..._

Moving his hands in a circular motion, he tried to make waves in the river.

Nothing happened.

Panic filled Benjamin's mind. He leapt to his feet and ran towards the town, pulling his coat around himself as he went. His feet flew over the hot ground until he reached the outskirts of the city. There was a market there, where he knew that Kebi would be found, and so he wove through the crowd, searching for the scent of his mate.

Nothing. Nothing at all. Not even a trace.

Then he saw the corner of a black cloak whipping around the corner of a building by a stall selling cloth, and everything fell into place.

It was happening to them all.

_Denali, Alaska, 10:50 pm_

The village had a population of just over one hundred and fifty, living in just under fifty houses. There were four streets, a school (with thirty pupils), a shop with a small café, and a tiny hospital. The street lights were switched off at eleven o'clock. They would have to go around the village, without crossing the highway, meaning two extra minutes would be spent.

They stood perhaps a hundred metres from the house on the far edge of the village, each absorbed in his own thoughts..

The seconds ticked by.

They stood.

_This is taking too long. She might die. I'm letting everyone down, again,_ thought Edward.

_Why can't I **see**__?_ Alice yelled silently to her brother. She wasn't expecting an answer - which might explain the scream that rent the air when she heard, clear as a bell, Edward's voice in her mind.

_Oh, Alice._

Bella gasped with fright at the shattering cry, and even as Edward opened his mouth to yell he knew not what, Jasper pushed him away and gently turned Alice's face to his.

"What did you see?" he asked her gently.

Alice opened her mouth but said nothing.

"Alice," said Jasper softly, and although she stayed, her eyes shut, swaying gently from side to side, she spoke. Her voice was the voice from a dream.

"I didn't... see..." she whispered.

"What do you mean?" asked Jasper.

"I.. I..." Alice smiled, an expression of bliss denoting the Epiphany upon her face. "I _heard_. I heard everything... the world is so full of sounds..."

"Yes," murmured Alice, "I heard... and I felt... and I saw..."

Edward covered his eyes with his hands briefly, pushing his hair away from his eyes with an expression of deep thought on his face. Then he straightened up, looking at Bella with an expression that demanded answers.

Bella nodded slowly. "Don't you see what's happening?" she asked. "Alice knew what was going to happen all along. She saw it, saw this change, so long ago... graduation?" The word seemed to be addressed to Alice.

"Phoenix," Alice replied, still in her trance-like state.

"Gosh," whispered Bella, "that was before..." She looked at Alice, a question in her eyes, and her sister nodded almost imperceptibly. She stood up straight and when she spoke her voice was clear, brisk, almost cold.

"We have to go. Whatever it was that happened to me just now doesn't matter; every minute that we waste here is a minute of Tanya's life."

Bella winced. That had been a direct hit at Edward where it hurt most; he couldn't stand failure.

"She's right," agreed Jasper, a note of urgency in his voice, "it won't take long if we really run. We _must_ go."

Edward nodded. Then he wheeled around and sprinted away into the darkness.

_The Denali house, Alaska, 10:53 pm_

The door was shut, and only a vampire's ears could have picked up the sounds. As they ran towards the house, the muffled sounds - a breath, a whisper, the sound of stone fingers drumming on wood - were blocked by a scream. Voices broke out - a quiet reassurance, a sharp remonstrance, a command of acquiescence.

Then the door opened, and Carmen ran out towards them. She pulled Edward into a hug, then addressed them in a swift babble of Spanish. Edward nodded, and she led them inside.

Inside the house, the changes were obvious. All the furniture in the main room had been pushed aside, leaving a wide space in the middle, where Tanya stood, completely still, her eyes shut. She trembled slightly where she waited. The others - Garrett, Kate, Eleazar - were ringed around the walls of the room, alert and wide-eyed. The most noticeable difference in the room, however, was that the wall of glass facing the wood had been smashed. Glittering shards lay on the grass outside like runaway stars.

"Tanya?" whispered Bella tentatively. There was no response. Tanya's eyelids didn't even flicker.

Alice stepped forward slowly, but Edward threw out an arm and barred her way.

"I think I have to do this myself," he said in a low voice.

"Edward, are you sure you know what you're doing?" asked Jasper. "I mean, is this wise?"

Edward nodded. "I know what's wrong with her. Alice knows too."

Alice pursed her lips as if in deep thought before speaking. "This... thing, whatever it is... is happening to all of us. Every one of us. We have to stop it, before this gets too late."

Edward moved across the room, his every movement fluid, yet slow, so slow that it could not possibly startle Tanya. He reached her, and then gently touched her shoulder. Tanya opened her eyes, and the sight of them was enough to send fear into every atom in Edward's body.

Her eyes were as red as blood, but not just the irises. Her whole eyes were red. The whites had been enveloped in a cloud of scarlet. Her pupils had disappeared.

And even as Edward watched, the redness was seeping, slowly, into Tanya's veins. The skin around her eyes, reaching down her face, was faintly pinkish.

There was a trace of the scent of human blood in the air, and Edward felt the terror of the dark creep into his soul.

Tanya was becoming human again.


	9. Chapter 8: Take me with you

**Coven X – Chapter 8: Take me with you**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. **

**AN: The full note will be at the end, explaining any of the numerous possible errors that you may find in this chapter, so please do not leave correcting reviews until you have read that, although of course all reviews are very welcome. **

_Volterra, Italy, 0:09 am_

Caprice stared at her bedroom ceiling. She noticed abstractedly that the paint was crumbling at the corners. There was a thin line running down the left side of the ceiling. She had thought it was just a line before, but she realised now that it was a crack.

Her whole life was like a crack.

A black hole.

Darkness seemed to swallow her mind, and she turned over uneasily beneath the sticky heat of her bed sheets.

The feeling that the ceiling was pushing down on her behind her back engulfed her, and she gasped in terror, but something whispered to her _don't look round_, and she lay there, on her front, paralysed with irrational fear, holding her breath and not even realising it.

The suspense was too much. She sat up straight and looked around her.

"What am I doing here?" she asked out loud.

She leapt out of bed and, pulling her pyjamas off, grabbed the first thing she could find from her wardrobe and pulled whatever it was over her head.

There was no time to put on shoes as she crept down stairs and opened the back door. She grabbed her inhaler from the counter-top and kept it clutched in her hand as she stepped into the darkened garden.

The night air was warm against her skin. She crept across the garden, avoiding the table and chairs and the numerous pot-plants on the patio, which occupied about a sixth of the long garden. After that, there were about thirty metres that were paved, with trellises criss-crossing it. Grape vines, honeysuckle, and climbing flowers twisted their ways up the thin wooden bars. At the very end of the garden was a low wall, perhaps a metre high, with a drop to the cobbled street below.

She pulled herself up the wall, using a useful lemon tree in a pot to steady herself, and then swung her legs around and let herself fall to the street below. She landed on her feet but her knees buckled beneath her, and she fell back and leant against the wall for support.

Caprice caught her breath and set off, running through the dark streets. On these August nights, the sun barely went down, and it was only truly dark for an hour or so, around midnight.

She turned a sharp corner and sprinted up a narrow alley. She crossed the small _campo_ at the top in two strides, but the hills here were steep, and she had to stop once or twice, to catch her breath, and wait for her heartbeat to slow down before she continued.

It wouldn't be long now, she was halfway there already…

Why was her heartbeat so loud? It seemed that her heart would leap out of her chest, so eager did it seem to make its presence known.

Her breath was coming short and sharp now, but she wouldn't stop. She turned into a quiet street, small houses lining the road. A cat watched her from a wall, its green eyes glowing eerily in the gathering gloom.

Nearly there…

She stumbled as she ran up the hill that led to the main square, catching her hands on the ground. She saw the blood on them in an abstract sort of a way, something unimportant, something that she would deal with later, if at all.

A few seconds, and she would have done it…

She reached the square. Her throat hurt, her body was aching, she could hardly breath, and the clock was showing one minute to midnight, and it was darker than ever. She splashed through the fountain, soaking her legs up to the shins, and finally, finally…

Please…

He would be there…

He had sworn that he would always be there, if she needed him…

Whenever she wanted him…

Even now? Would he still care?

_Please…_

She reached the cathedral opposite the clock tower and without hesitating slipped through the open door. Institution forbade her to run in here; she bent her head out of habit as she passed the narthex, with its majestic Trinity window, and began to feel the beginnings of muscle burn in her legs. Stumbling up the aisle between the pews, she reached the space between the pulpit in the left aisle and the altar, where the chalice stood and the bread and wine were stored in their gold casket, and there her legs failed her, and she could walk no longer.

She was trapped between the place of the body and the place of the soul. As always, in the middle – not lowly, nor weak, nor glorious, nor splendid. Nothing.

But there was one certainity in her life. Him. He had been there, for six perfect weeks, six wondrous weeks, in the heat of summer. For six weeks, she had had a rock, a fortress, a guiding light. She had thought that he would be there forever.

He had gone, and she was alone.

There was almost total darkness inside, but for the light cast by the single candle burning by an icon of the Virgin Mary.

She tried to call his name, but trying felt as though she had been stabbed through the chest with a knife, and she could barely make a sound.

_Inhaler,_ she thought, and with a terrible thrill found that there was nothing in her hand. She must have dropped the inhaler while she was running.

A searing pain ripped through her hand as she tried to raise it to her heart.

Looking down, she saw that a gash had been ripped across her whole left hand, stretching from beneath her thumb right to her little finger. As she had moved it, the grazes must have been pulled apart. Blood dripped onto the floor from the open wound as she gazed in horrified wonder at the wound.

She sank to the cold stone floor, her throat too closed to even gasp. Something was spread out around her as she bent forwards, her right hand on her heart and her left stretched out before her, nearly too weak to move, and she realised with a sense of sad irony that she was wearing her Communion dress. The white silk and net floated out in a cloud and then sank to the floor. Her gold crucifix dangled in front of her, between the sheets of straight black hair that framed her face as she kneeled.

It must have looked as though she was praying.

_Please,_ she begged, _let me see him one more time… let me live that long… please…_

And for a second she thought that her prayer had been answered. She heard a whisper of movement behind her, and cold fingers touched her neck.

_Thank you…_ she thought.

But her prayer had not been answered. The touch had brought not his angel's voice, and the manna that was her inhaler's cool breath. Instead, she heard a sigh and whispered words.

"Jane, it's definitely her…"

She heard light footsteps coming her way. Someone breathed in deeply.

"Well done, Felix," murmured a smooth voice that Caprice remembered with a shock and a strange feeling of inevitability, because it was the woman from the market. "You really have done it. Actually…"

The steps changed direction; it seemed that the woman was heading in a wide arc around Caprice. She began to wonder vaguely why the woman wanted her – was she mafia? Drug cartel? Had she not liked the olives? – but her sight had begun to mist over, and she was drifting in a closed world of gently fading sound.

"Here," said the woman casually, and something spun through the air towards Felix. "She's dying as we speak. Two puffs will do the job. It gets into the blood, so it should make it easier for you to leave…"

There was a rustle and a soft thump, and Felix was suddenly in front of her, tipping her head back. The medicine was like heaven to her: she had never before so much appreciated the beauty of breath.

A minute later, she was looking up from where she knelt in the aisle at the most beautiful girl that she had ever seen. She was tiny, five foot at the most – Caprice had a good six inches on her – with blond hair tied in intricate coils around her head. Her eyes were perfect almond shapes, huge and dark, and her features were as perfectly aligned as the markings on a micrometer; she couldn't have been more than thirteen by appearance, but her manner suggested at least a sixteen year old. She stood by the altar, where the chalice stood, regarding Caprice calmly. Felix had gone, and they were alone.

The girl smiled.

Caprice was too afraid to speak.

"My name is Jane."

Her eyes were perhaps not so black as Alec's had been – they had a slight, sinister, burgundy tinge.

"I think you know my brother."

She disappeared for half a second, and then she was on the other side of the altar.

"I don't want to hurt him."

Jane stepped forward.

"So I won't make this long."

Caprice opened her mouth and managed to whisper one word.

"Alec…"

Jane's eyes flashed with fury. "How dare you…?" she hissed. "How dare you desecrate his name in that way? How dare you, foolish human, even gaze upon his face? You don't know him!" And suddenly she had changed, from ruthless killer stalking Caprice into a jealous teenage girl.

This gave Caprice something – not courage, not bravery exactly, just a sort of confidence that this girl – whoever or whatever she was – was nothing more than she herself.

"Who are you? What do you want with me?" asked Caprice. Her voice shook slightly, but she managed to cry the words out with reasonable force.

Jane smiled sweetly. "You might find out soon enough," she whispered, and then leapt across the few metres of space that had been separating Caprice and death.

But even as Jane gently lifted Caprice's bleeding hand, the door of the cathedral banged open and a voice that was a choir of angels to Caprice's ears rang out through the hall.

"Would you rather I killed you or Felix did?" Alec asked his sister.

**AN: HI!!! Sorry, I completely forgot to add this note when I first published this, but here it is anyway. Basically, I hope you didn't find this chapter _too_ long or too weird or too disappointing. Some of it might be hard to understand, laced as it is (not) with subtle cultural references, but I tried to base the cathedral here on the real cathedral in the real town of Volterra. They didn't actually film the movie there, but I went when I was a little kid, so I know it's a real place. A real ugly one, too, but that's a bit irrelevant. Anyway, the narthex and its trinity window are really where I placed them in this, and I tried to make everything basically the same.  
**

**This is NOT meant to have any kind of evangelical message; it really is just a scene set in a cathedral, cause I spent much of my childhood being dragged around them by my parents, so I wanted to vent my spleen and get my revenge on the whole lot of them. **

**I hope that this wasn't too over the top. I'm very insecure, so please review and try and help me get some more self esteem! (Or less. Constructive criticism has all the beauty that its alliteration implies.)  
**


	10. Chapter 9: Stranger

**Coven X – Chapter 9: Stranger**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Twilight.**

The days slipped by, to her mind – the hours seemed fleeting, the minutes like seconds. Her feet flew over the ground, and so did her conscience, and she was aware of neither of them.

_Hey!_

He was laughing, as usual, and his thoughts were broken up by his happiness. She was never like that – her tone was more serious, softer. That was what he told her, anyway – no one could feel the touch of their own thoughts, after all.

_Yeah? _

The tumble of words flowing into her mind made her dizzy.

_Can you feel it too? It's like a… it's like… the…_

She couldn't make out any more than the usual background buzzing that was ever-present behind the clear thoughts that he gave her.

_When I was younger, there was more._

That was a strange one.

_What do you mean? _

_I don't know. _

_Well, I don't know, either! _Her laughter rippled gently through her words. _It's all so perfect…_

_Not any more, it's not. _His humour faded, and he finished in a more serious tone – she caught a hum of pain behind his message, and it shocked her. She had never felt like that before, and her shock must have shown through to him. His thoughts flew at her like a dagger – not that she knew what one of those was.

_You can feel it too, then? _

_I don't know what I feel. _

His hand slipped out of hers. They were separate now, and she was catching a slight dimming of light through his vision.

_It's beautiful, though._

For the first time, the clean blank canvas of her mind was marked with a dark blot of confusion.

_Yes. _

_They are coming._

That was the last of his voice that she heard, and then he began to fade. First the background of his thoughts, then all that she heard was the sharp clean cut words, and then… silence.

All her mind was drifting. All the strings had been cut. The balloon of her sanity was floating off into a clear blue sky. Such a silence, as never before such a silence…

It had begun.

**Sorry if that chapter was terrible – it's really **_**hard**_** writing in thoughts only! Anyway, I don't know if this is a bit weird or what (I kind of suspect it is), but even if that's all you have to say, please review. Many thanks to **_**I Have A Scarf**_** for her review – please do carry on reading, everyone! The titles are from one of my favourite artists (here's a clue: it's all Secondhand), and you have until Chapter 11 is published to tell me who it is. Also, since Tuskface asked, I have a quick message (please read) for you all: this chapter is linked to the Prologue. It's about the same people, and although it will tie in to the rest of the plot sooner or later, I have to have _some_ suspense left over somewhere!**

**^_^  
**


	11. Chapter 10: Half Alive

**Coven X – Chapter 10: Half Alive**

**Disclaimer: Not mine!**

**AN: ZOMG, I am really, really, really, sorry that I haven't updated for about a **_**year**_**. I am a moron on legs (… hang, don't most morons have legs?). Writer's block kills like a really bad sprain. Hope you'll enjoy this chapter; keep reviewing (19 so far… let's make it 20, agreed?)! Leave a review if you hate it, if you love it, if you think my interpretation of Edward is completely messed up. Leave a review even if you think I could do with a bit more plot, a statement with which I totally agree.**

**So, here goes with the last chapter for you to guess my second hand (MASSIVE CLUE THERE, PEOPLE) musician-of-the-titles. Bit of a crack-y one, though not so much as Chapter 9 (ZOMG people I am SO SORRY about how crap that chapter was, just re-read it and it E FLAT MAJORLY SUCKS). **

_Bliss_

_Endless bliss_

_Cool water in my veins_

_I'm freed _

_Freed from my bonds at last_

_Will I last? _

_No more fire_

_Quenched like my thirst_

_Bliss_

_And freedom_

_Forever_

_And ever_

_Edward_

_I'm yours_

_Forever_

_Free_

_From the pain_

_My angel_

_My Edward_

_I'm yours_

_Forever yours_

_**Jasper**_

I could barely think as I gazed at Tanya, as her skin became gradually pinker and warmth crept through the air, as a quiet thrumming began to fill the air and her chest rose and fell, as the whole room seemed to separate off from reality and float away into nothingness, because this could not be – was not – happening.

The only thing that was holding me back from losing my mind entirely was the scent – the delicious scent – the scent of pain that is gladly endured – the scent of human blood gently permeating the air. Though I stood still now, my mind was racing.

_**Bella**_

My mind was empty of all feeling, of all emotion except pain. Tanya seemed to flicker and fade before my motionless eyes; images of every time I had seen her – the wedding, last January, in each photograph lining the walls of home and on each visit and in my mind and in my memories – would it ever end, the stream of pictures flowing through my mind? I knew somewhere, somehow, that I was seeing Tanya again, through my mind and my memories, because I could not face that most unendurable loss of all – the loss of a sister.

_**Edward**_

_What now? Oh God, what now? I've killed her_, I thought. My desperation must have shown, because I saw Kate's eyes flicker towards me, and I fought for control. _Think, Edward, think!_

But I could not think – there was nothing I could do to change what was happening. My thoughts trundled past slowly, so slowly that it felt dull to watch, like an old movie that I'd seen too many times to be interesting any longer. This feeling – loss, grief, pain – I had seen it all before. Too many times.

I had watched a hundred deaths – my friends, then my family, then my humanity – and my sight now clouded with the pain.

I knew inside that behind the superficial sting of Tanya leaving, there was the deeper ache of failure – my failure. Like a bruise to the bone, it resonated with a sick, dull, thud, a bluntness that could never be sharpened… I hated more than anything the fact that I had failed.

I had failed.

_**Alice**_

I watched the blood rise from her marrow, watched a blush creep across her forehead, saw the details of her physique changing millimetre by millimetre.

It was kind of interesting, actually.

But it's hard to concentrate on something like your adopted cousin returning from a vampire to a human state of physicality, reshaping the boundaries of your world and possibly ending her life in the process when you can see her after she's done all that – when you can see her after she's done all that.

In my mind, there was movement. A boy leant over her prostrate body, his face torn with grief; grief for what, I wondered vaguely. As the boy came more in focus, his features sharpened and ceased to blur, it was no shock for me to see that it was Edward. Of course, it was Edward.

He was shaking, shaking like a leaf in the wind. Shivering like a candle in a draught, guilt seeping across each movement, he looked at her no-longer beautiful visage with an expression of something that I could not identify.

It looked like shame.

And yet… the darkness clouding my eyes was still pierced by one shaft of light. A dark light – does such a thing exist? A dark light, offering us one last hope – a flickering light – blurred shapes drifting across the candle's flame –

***

Once that light had been the dark, but even sometimes we have to turn away from the bright light and look through the corner of our eye. Sometimes we have not to forgive, but to forget.

Sometimes we have to do that if we want to live.


	12. Chapter 11: A Draft of Sunshine

**Coven X – Chapter 11: A Draft of Sunshine**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, its franchises, or anything to do with it, except two posters and a soundtrack.**

**AN: The titles were Secondhand Serenade (thanks for not guessing… :( ) and now there's a new set. Guess what they are and you could win a cookie…**

_**This chapter is dedicated to **__Candi Marie Cullen__**, who has left so many kind and amusing reviews.**_

_Ten miles from Cairo, Egypt, 4:03 pm_

"Tia…" yelled Benjamin, "Tia…"

His words were grabbed by the fierce wind, torn from his lips, and tossed away like a feather on the sea.

"Tia, where are you?"

_Not so far away, 4:04 pm_

Tia sat by the bank of the stream. It wasn't the Nile, just a tiny tributary, but still the little river was at least four or five metres across, and where it crashed over the rocks a little way downstream the sound was horrendous. So loud. Tia didn't like loud noises – but then again, she didn't like anything extreme, anything violent or powerful or superlative. It wasn't that she was afraid – not any more – it was just that something in her wanted peace. She just wanted a quiet, peaceful, life, with Benjamin by her side, to pick her up each time she fell, to protect her and defend her, a lover for her life and nothing more… was that so much to ask?

Tia sighed. Kicking off her sandals, she stretched out and slid her toes right down to the water's edge.

The sky was so blue, as though someone had shaken the world upside-down and all the sea had fallen out of its shores; the sky held it in like a bowl, like a pair of cupped hands…

_That's the silliest thing I've ever heard, and don't you know it,_ Tia told herself reprimandingly. _No child in the world would believe that whimsical tale._

She felt a gentle breeze lift the ends of her hair. The temperature had dropped a little in the past minute or so from its usual scorching heat… in fact, it was quite chilly now.

Pulling on her shoes again, Tia glanced up at the sky. She was alarmed – though not afraid – by the storm clouds she saw gathering at the western horizon. That was unusual for January, but not very.

A shiver ran through her as she suddenly felt the strangest feeling of foreboding. It was as though someone was watching her. She stood up, shaking her shiny cloud of hair back behind her shoulders, and started home.

_Somewhere far out in the desert, 7:21 pm_

She heard the storm break before she saw it. The clouds were boiling in the sky; the wind was strong enough to tear thorn trees from their roots and send them bouncing across the dunes; the landscape itself was being remoulded, and soon the rain would come.

Tia shut her eyes, and waited.

She was still there, standing completely still with her eyes tightly closed and her hands over her eyes, when Benjamin found her a few minutes later.

"Tia?" he asked gently. "Tia, are you all right?"

She made no movement, didn't do anything except, maybe, tighten the rigidness of her posture; he reached out and gently prised one hand from her face, but her eyes remained shut. Benjamin stepped forwards and put his arms around her – it was a simple gesture, but it was all that he could do, and it seemed to work. A short time later, Tia lifted her arms and hugged him back.

They remained there, in silence, for a short time, before Benjamin moved away, out of their embrace. Tentatively, he spoke. His voice was quiet, a little hoarse, and slightly scared.

"What happened?"

She didn't answer; her face was closed like a door in the face of a well-meaning missionary – inoffensive, quiet, temperate, yet final, insistent. Please leave now. Your presence is no longer required.

As Benjamin stood there, he felt a change come over him.

There was a trace of a flicker in the corner of his eye. He looked over his left shoulder.

A flicker in the other eye. He looked over his right shoulder.

There was nothing there. The landscape was empty.

With a sigh, Benjamin turned back to face Tia. He wouldn't normally have said it, have thought it, even, but he was beginning to tire of this. In company, she was the quiet one, the kind and thoughtful and blisteringly moral one – he had fallen in love with that girl, who wore grey jeans and whose dark hair obscured her eyes and who had a laugh like running water, not this silent, controlling presence who wouldn't even lower herself to converse with him, this girl who appeared each time they were alone.

Why couldn't she just speak to him? What was so terrible that she could not even communicate her fear? It was always like this, always the same – she fell, he picked up. She left, he cleaned up. She broke, he mended. That was the way it was.

As he frowned, concentrating on her face, that flicker came again in the corner of his eye. Benjamin felt like he was going mad.

"Tia. Please."

She opened her eyes, at last.

"Benjamin?" she said softly, and his anger melted at the sound of her voice, but a tiny cold person at the back of his mind chimed in: _You know this happens every time. She always does this to you; are you going to let her keep on going forever? Is this going to be the way it is, till death does you part? _

And the side of Benjamin's soul that some people call love replied: _yes_.

_Ten miles out from Cairo, Egypt, 2:17 am_

Benjamin rolled onto his back, the sand comfortably moulding itself around his body as he turned. The storm hadn't broken yet, although the clouds had remained for the whole afternoon, and by the evening the pressure had grown stifling and almost unbearable. The wind still ripped around the dunes, whipping the edges of the overhanging sands over and over, blurring their edges when you looked for too long.

"Tia…"

"Mm?"

"You see that star up there?" Benjamin pointed to a distant orb.

"Which one?" came the mumbled reply.

Benjamin sighed. "Doesn't matter."

He shut his eyes, wrapped his arms around Tia even tighter as they lay beneath the sky, blocking out the leaves that framed the heavens and the glowing moon, enclosing himself in his small world, and if it hadn't been so dark inside his mind he would have missed the rustle of a leaf as someone put a foot wrong, and their muttered curse.

It sounded Italian.

Benjamin leapt to his feet, knocking Tia across the roots of the tree beneath which they had been resting. He snarled, an automatic reaction, shocking even himself – he was normally so calm, so collected, but the combination of shock and terror and a strange satisfaction at this new turn of events had conspired to make him something else from what he was. Tia was by his side in an instant, poised to attack and to be defended. The skies didn't seem so comforting any more; the stars were so far out, tiny points of pity in an empty universe.

"Who's that?" asked Benjamin, his voice nearly shaking. He scanned the darkness desperately to no avail. He circled around, Tia at his back, facing the other way. "I know you're there… don't try and lie to me, I can see you!"

The shadows shifted, and six cloaked and masked figures stepped forwards, shaking back hoods and pushing locks of shining hair away from glinting red eyes as they settled into a loose semi-circle, casually defensive, slightly wary - far less so than the situation seemed to warrant. Benjamin knew their names, of course he did, and every face was perhaps equally terrible to see here, though not in the same way – Dmitri was there, of course, as were Heidi and the nondescript Santiago – but a petite girl with bouncing red curls, a huge and graceful woman whose skin glittered even in the moonlight, and a pale, thin, man whose dark hair flopped forwards into his eyes –

Benjamin heard Tia's voice before he could even frame words to match the horror of his thoughts.

"So that's the way it is now?" she spat bitterly. "That's how we do things? You can't get him – you can't take him!" Though she sounded brave, her every limb shook against Benjamin's – though whether with fear or rage, he couldn't tell.

"No –" began the tiny Maggie, stepping forward conciliatorily, but Tia cut her off.

"Don't even try that, Maggie – you – you dare to treat me as though I'm –" She choked on her own anger, and Siobhan took the opportunity to explain, though Tia was nearly insensible, shaking with rage.

"Tia, this isn't what you think it is."

"This is _exactly _what I think it is!" she yelled, her hair round her head, frightening in her fury. Benjamin hardly felt her recognised her as she struggled to distil her passion into speech. "You're just trying to take him away, you're just trying to – to –" and despite all the confusion and shock of his situation, Benjamin felt humbled next to her overwhelming devotion.

"No, Tia," Siobhan explained patiently, "you're wrong. We haven't come to hurt you; we've come to help you. Please, try to understand when I say that this is not all about you."

Tia huffed contemptuously, but her posture gentled a little at Siobhan's soothing tones, and she seemed a little calmer.

"Seriously," Siobhan murmured, "we can explain."

Her voice became soft, low, gentle. Benjamin found himself nodding along to her explanation, felt Tia slowly relax, but as the calm spread around his body he still felt something, some horror, some pain, because what Siobhan was describing was surely – _surely _– the end.

"Okay," he broke in when she had finished. "What can I do?"

Liam spoke. His voice was low, hoarse, and Benjamin realised he had never heard his voice before. He sounded tired.

"Nothing. There's nothing left. We can't stop it."

Tia stepped forward, eyes glinting. She looked almost manic, angry and dark, in the moonlight. The silent Volturi gazed at her.

"Yes, we can. We just need…"

Benjamin closed his eyes in fear and despair.

"Come _on_," said Tia, frantically.

"It's the end, Tia," Maggie told her dully.

"No," Benjamin said suddenly. "It doesn't have to be."

**AN: Please review. Sorry for the delay – that took me four months to write and, dear GOD, it still burns my eyes to read it.  
**


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